The 5 to 10 Year Plan

I was talking to a friend a few years back, and she and her husband had a very detailed, year by year travel plan. I thought it was a little much, but she was a very detailed, planned out person at the time.

In the last few months though it's started to make sense. Actually, it started to make sense when my boss introduced the idea of a "minute goal" during a conference call. I thought the idea was totally stupid, a Successories backed motivational minute. But I started thinking about it...irritated as I was with being forced to write down a goal on paper to "take me to the next level."

Often the only way I can get rid of something that is irritating me, like this goal-setting exercise, is to pinpoint exactly what is bothering me about it. While I was trying to do that, I realized that part of the reason I've never really liked having goals is I never knew where I wanted to go.

And writing that leaves me with a dilemma. Do I say I now have it all figured out, and publicly declare my goals so that they must be adhered to? Or do I say I still don't know, but the journey is half the fun? (Picture that on a mug)

To be honest, it's a little of both. I have some broad strokes figured out, and it makes me feel better. It helps put what I'm doing now in perspective, but like with the less TV weeknights, I'm no pharisee. If it's Project Runway night, I'm watching it. If there's a move or job or something else in the future, I'll go for it.